Guy v. Central Locating Service, Ltd., 3:04 CV 7544.
| Decision Date | 27 September 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 3:04 CV 7544.,3:04 CV 7544. |
| Parties | Roosevelt GUY, II, Plaintiff, v. CENTRAL LOCATING SERVICE, LTD., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio |
Francis J. Landry, Wasserman, Bryan, Landry & Honold, Toledo, OH, for Plaintiff.
Frederic E. Champnella, II, Susan D. Koval, Keller Thoma, Detroit, MI, for Defendant.
This matter is before the Court on Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 19). Plaintiff has responded (Doc. No. 23), and Defendant has replied (Doc. No. 34). This Court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1367. For the reasons that follow, Defendant's motion is granted in part and denied in part.
Plaintiff Roosevelt Guy, II worked for Defendant Central Locating Service ("CLS") as a utility locator from May, 2003, to December, 2003. CLS responds to "Call Before You Dig" reports phoned into the Ohio Utility Protection Service. Plaintiff's job as a utility locator required him each morning to upload, via computer, tickets instructing him to travel to different sites in Huron County, Ohio, where he would use charts and underground detection equipment to discern the location of underground utility lines and mark the locations with paint and flags. CLS gave Plaintiff a company truck, a laptop computer, and utility-locating equipment. When CLS laid off Plaintiff due to a seasonal downturn in business, Plaintiff's job performance evaluation gave him the lowest score of all CLS locators. CLS did not rehire Plaintiff when its business picked up in the spring of 2004. During his employment with CLS, Plaintiff was its only African-American employee working out of the Toledo office.
Plaintiff has sued CLS under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and Ohio Revised Code § 4112.02, claiming that it discriminated against him on the basis of his race in several ways. First, Plaintiff claims CLS treated him differently from white employees with respect to his training, his raise, the truck and equipment it issued him, and the job assistance that management made available to him. Second, Plaintiff claims CLS discriminated against him with respect to his layoff and CLS's failure to rehire him. Third, Plaintiff claims CLS created and tolerated a racially hostile working environment. Plaintiff additionally brings a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress. Because the factual allegations underlying Plaintiff's claims are extensive, the Court will set them forth as necessary throughout the opinion.
Summary judgment is appropriate where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." FED.R.CIV.P. 56(c). The moving party bears the initial responsibility of "informing the district court of the basis for its motion, and identifying those portions of `the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any,' which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2553, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The movant may meet this burden by demonstrating the absence of evidence supporting one or more essential elements of the non-movant's claim. Id. at 323-25, 106 S.Ct. 2548. Once the movant meets this burden, the opposing party "must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2514, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (quoting FED.R.CIV.P. 56(e)).
Once the burden of production has so shifted, the party opposing summary judgment cannot rest on its pleadings or merely reassert its previous allegations. It is not sufficient "simply [to] show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts." Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1356, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Rather, Rule 56(e) "requires the nonmoving party to go beyond the pleadings" and present some type of evidentiary material in support of its position. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. at 2553; see also Harris v. General Motors Corp., 201 F.3d 800, 802 (6th Cir.2000). Summary judgment must be entered "against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial." Celotex, 477 U.S. at 322, 106 S.Ct. at 2552.
"In considering a motion for summary judgment, the Court must view the facts and draw all reasonable inferences therefrom in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party." Williams v. Belknap, 154 F.Supp.2d 1069, 1071 (E.D.Mich.2001) (citing 60 Ivy Street Corp. v. Alexander, 822 F.2d 1432, 1435 (6th Cir.1987)). However, "`at the summary judgment stage the judge's function is not himself to weigh the evidence and determine the truth of the matter,'" Wiley v. U.S., 20 F.3d 222, 227 (6th Cir.1994) (quoting Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505); therefore, "[t]he Court is not required or permitted ... to judge the evidence or make findings of fact." Williams, 154 F.Supp.2d at 1071. The purpose of summary judgment "is not to resolve factual issues, but to determine if there are genuine issues of fact to be tried." Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. v. Am. Eagle Outfitters, Inc., 130 F.Supp.2d 928, 930 (S.D.Ohio 1999). Ultimately, this Court must determine "whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law." Anderson, 477 U.S. at 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505; see also Atchley v. RK Co., 224 F.3d 537, 539 (6th Cir.2000).
Plaintiff claims that CLS discriminated against him on the basis of race in the terms and conditions of his employment, including disparate treatment in training, in the raise he received, in the truck and equipment CLS issued him, and in the help available to him from his supervisor. While Plaintiff has shown a genuine issue of material fact exists with regard to his claim of disparate treatment as to his training and raise, Defendant is entitled to summary judgment on Plaintiff's other disparate treatment claims.
Both 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and Ohio Revised Code § 4112.02 prohibit racial discrimination with respect to the terms and conditions of an employment relationship. 42 U.S.C. § 1981(b); Ohio Rev.Code § 4112.02(A). "A plaintiff who alleges discrimination in conditions of employment must demonstrate, in order to make out a prima facie case, only that he is a member of a class entitled to ... protection ... and that he is accorded treatment different from that accorded persons otherwise similarly situated who are not members of the class." Potter v. Goodwill Indus. of Cleveland, 518 F.2d 864, 865 (6th Cir.1975); see also Johnson v. Univ. of Cincinnati, 215 F.3d 561, 573 n. 5 (6th Cir.2000) (); Williams v. Ford Motor Co., 187 F.3d 533, 538 (6th Cir.1999) ( ).
The training CLS provided its new hires consisted of: (1) a week or two during which individual trainees rode along with a single, experienced utility locator as the locator performed the day's tasks; (2) a week-long classroom component culminating in a certification exam; and (3) field training in which a group of trainees performed utility locates with a field instructor. (Doc. No. 25, Morgan Depo., p. 5-6). Plaintiff does not claim that he was discriminated against in regard to the classroom component of his training. However, he claims that white employees received better instruction during the one-on-one ride-alongs and better training opportunities during the group field training.
The evidence is insufficient for a jury to find that Plaintiff's ride-along experience differed from those of white trainees. Plaintiff was unable to provide any information about what went on during the other employees' one-on-one ride-alongs. (Doc. No. 28, 77-79). Moreover, his belief that white employees had experienced locators riding along with them while he was sent out to do the job on his own was based solely upon his own speculation after observing unknown persons riding in those employees' trucks. Id.
However, a jury could base a finding of discrimination on Plaintiff's own testimony about his group field training experience. Plaintiff testified under oath in his deposition that, during his field training with instructor Mike Stein ("Stein"), Stein never let Plaintiff actually use the locating equipment Plaintiff was supposedly being trained to use, though the white trainees with whom Plaintiff trained actually used the equipment. (Doc. No. 28, p. 91, 94). The credibility of Plaintiff's statement, which directly conflicts with the testimony of Jacob Fox ("Fox") and Chad Morgan ("Morgan"), his fellow trainees, who both testified that Plaintiff used the equipment, is not for this Court to judge. A jury could credit Plaintiff's testimony and disbelieve Messrs. Fox and Morgan. This is especially so coupled with Plaintiff's testimony that trainer Stein made racially disparaging...
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